National wetlands inventory: A strategy for the 21st century

              U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
National Wetlands
Inventory:
A Strategy for the
21st Century
Estuarine emergent wetlands account for only five percent of the wetland area in the lower 48
States. Those like this estuarine wetland in South Carolina provide essential rearing habitat for
important commercial fisheries. Photo by Tom Dahl
Cover Photo: Riverine wetlands in the Weeki Wachee River, Florida. Photo by Porter Reed
Salt marsh habitat in the lower Kennebec River
in Maine provides valuable habitat for wading
birds, shore birds, waterfowl, and anadromous
fish. USFWS photo.
Executive Summary
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency that provides
information to the public on the extent and status of the Nations wetlands. Through
its National Wetlands Inventory, the agency has developed considerable expertise
in mapping wetlands and associated habitats. These maps have been used
extensively to make resource management decisions at the federal, state and local
government levels. The Congressional mandate directing the Service to map the
wetlands of the Nation and its Trust Territories has largely been met. Today,
however, the Service faces difficult natural resource management challenges and
decisions that did not exist when the Inventory was created twenty-six years ago.
This Strategy builds on the Inventory’s past successes, and is designed to increase
the availability and application of digital information for natural resources planning
and management in support of Service conservation programs. Resource managers
increasingly need contemporary information on aquatic habitats to address
increasingly complex issues. To successfully meet these Agency needs in the 21st
century, this Strategy has been developed for the National Wetlands Inventory. It
focuses on three Program goals as follows:
I. Strategic Mapping - Meeting resource management needs for contemporary
information by strategically producing updated maps in priority areas of the Nation
where fish and wildlife habitats are vulnerable to change, loss, or degradation.
II Trend and Change Analyses of Wetlands and Other Aquatic Habitats -
Intensifying the analysis of trends in aquatic habitats at the state, ecoregion, or
watershed level, especially in areas that have experienced substantial wetland
change or that are changing rapidly.
III Identifying and Assessing Threats to Aquatic Habitats at Risk - Analyzing
and disseminating resource information to better identify threats and risks to
important wetland and aquatic habitats to promote sound decision making.
Goal Statement
The goal of the National Wetlands Inventory is to provide the citizens of the United
States and its Trust Territories with current geospatially referenced information
on the status, extent, characteristics and functions of wetland, riparian, deepwater
and related aquatic habitats in priority areas to promote the understanding and
conservation of these resources.
Introduction
Aquatic habitats are valuable resources for fish and wildlife and people. They are
key breeding habitat for our nation’s freshwater and saltwater fisheries. In
addition, these habitats are essential to migratory birds in their annual journeys,
and they offer recreational opportunities for millions of citizens across the country.
They function to slow flood waters, recharge aquifers and protect people and their
homes from potentially catastrophic storms. In addition, wetlands assimilate, filter
and neutralize pollutants before they enter our rivers and lakes.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service established the National Wetlands Inventory
in 1974 to develop and provide resource managers with information on the location,
extent, and types of wetlands and deepwater habitats. When it began, the principal
focus of the Inventory was to produce maps of wetlands in priority areas for the
protection and management of trust fish and wildlife resources. At that time,
wetland mapping priorities included the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coastal regions;
the Prairie Pothole Region in the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Montana; the lower
Mississippi River delta; the playa wetlands of the Southern Great Plains; the Great
Lakes; flood plains of major rivers, and California’s Central Valley. Wetland
mapping priorities in Alaska were areas affected by oil and gas production, and
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corridors used for agricultural, population and transportation expansion. These
maps provided the Service and others with needed wetlands information to assist
in real-time decision making.
By the late 1970s, the Service and the Congress realized that completing a
comprehensive inventory of the Nation’s wetlands would be a long-term effort.
Additional direction was given to the Inventory with enactment of the Emergency
Wetlands Resources Act of 1986. The Act and its subsequent amendments gave
the Inventory specific goals and deadlines for producing hard copy and digital
wetland maps for the conterminous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and its
Territories. The Act also has required the Service to report to Congress on the
status and trends of the Nation’s wetlands every ten years.
By 2001, the Inventory had largely met its goal of mapping the wetlands of the
conterminous United States. Substantial progress had also been made on
developing the framework for a digital database of wetlands information for the
Nation. The Service had also completed three national reports for the Congress
on the status and trends of wetlands in the conterminous United States that span
a 50-year period.
The resource management responsibilities and priorities of the Service have
changed since the Inventory was conceived. Contemporary priorities focus on
protecting and managing a variety of habitats for trust fish and wildlife resources.
The Service provides habitat information to a diverse clientele including local
planning commissions, regional governments, multinational corporations, and
foreign governments.
The Inventory has evolved along with the Service and its customers. Much of that
evolution came with the development of digital wetland maps. In the early 1990s,
the bulk of wetlands data available to the public was hard copy maps. With the
advent of the Internet, most of the wetlands map information used by the public is
now provided by the Service in a digital format. In 1998, the Service introduced
its Wetlands Interactive Mapper that allows personal computer users to produce
wetlands maps for any area that has digital wetlands data available.
To better meet contemporary needs, the Inventory must continue to change. To
meet the needs for contemporary aquatic habitat information in support of complex
resource management decisions, the Service examined NWI program objectives
to determine those that are most important, and where to focus future program
efforts.
The purpose of this Strategy is to chart the course for the Inventory to best meet
the needs of the Service and its partners in a technologically evolving digital age.
The Strategy discusses the needed program changes, and offers definitive steps
to accomplish the new NWI program goals.
A History of Success
Our Mapping Mandate
Wetlands are the cornerstones of many important and complex ecosystems. The
Emergency Wetlands Resources Act recognized this fact and directed the Service
to map our Nation’s wetlands and deepwater habitats and produce information on
their characteristics, extent, and status. Specifically, the Act directed the Service
to map the wetlands in the Lower 48 States by September 30, 1998, the wetlands
of Alaska by September 30, 2000, and to digitize the available wetlands maps and
create a digital database for this information by September 30, 2004. By 2001,
the Inventory had produced draft or final maps for more than 90 percent of the
lower 48 states and about 35 percent of Alaska. In addition, the Inventory has
provided the Service and the public with scientific wetlands maps for nearly 30
years. This has been accomplished by working with numerous public and private
cooperators to produce maps, digital data, and nearly 200 reports and publications.
An important component of any wetland
management or protection effort is public
education. Numerous environmental and
nature centers throughout the United States
provide recreational and educational
opportunities for the public to gain an
appreciation for wetlands and the benefits they
provide society. Photo by Gabriela Smalley
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Although Inventory mapping of all of the Lower 48 States and Alaska has not
been fully completed, the most compelling need for resource managers and decision-makers
is for contemporary information on wetlands and other aquatic habitats.
This contemporary information is crucial for the conservation of important fish
and wildlife habitats. As the Service pursues strategic completion and updating of
wetland maps, the Inventory will continue to build a digital wetland database that
can be used to address resource management issues and to conduct habitat trend
assessments. Wetland information in digital formats is an important tool to promote
the stewardship of our Nation’s natural resources.
Although traditionally resource managers relied on NWI maps for management
decisions, nearly 70 percent of digital wetland map users are from the private
sector. Since 1994, users have downloaded more than 1,200,000 digital wetland
map files from the Internet. The Service promotes the development, sharing, and
distribution of digital wetlands data through the cooperation of 75 Federal, State,
Tribal, and local governments, private sector organizations and universities.
However, the Service must continue to develop additional applications of its data
that will facilitate broader use and relevancy in integrated natural resource
management and decision making in the future.
Status and Trends of Wetlands
The Emergency Wetlands Resources Act requires the Service to produce national
wetlands status and trend reports to Congress each decade. These status and
trends reports are used by Federal and State agencies, the scientific community,
and conservation groups for planning, decision-making, and wetland policy
formulation and assessment. The Service has rigorously documented the historic
downward trend in wetland losses since the 1950s. At that time the average annual
wetland loss rate was 458,000 acres. The Service found that during the mid-1970s
to mid-1980s the loss rate had declined to 290,000 wetland acres annually. More
recently, the Service reported to Congress in 2001 that the Nation’s wetland loss
rate was about 59,000 wetland acres annually by 1997. This represented an 80
percent decline in the estimated wetland loss rate from the mid-1970s to mid-1980s.
This Service database spans 50 years, and is now the most extensive statistical
source of wetland change information in the Nation.
The Service has also shown that the Nation has lost more than half the wetlands
that existed at the time of European settlement in what is now the Lower 48 States.
The Emergency Wetlands Resources Act of
1986 requires the Service to report to Congress
at 10-year intervals on the status and trends of
the Nation’s wetlands. Photo by Tom Dahl
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Riparian vegetation along stream courses and
in drainage areas provides vital habitat for
important trust fish and wildlife resources in
the western United States. USFWS photo.
Although wetland loss rates have declined dramatically, the Nation continues to
lose wetlands in some locales despite the best efforts of government policy makers,
regulatory agencies, conservation organizations, and the public to conserve and
protect them.
Regional and state wetlands trend analyses by the Service augment our knowledge
of habitat changes on a more relevant local scales. The Service has completed
numerous local and regional status and trends analyses including the Texas Coast,
the Mid-Atlantic States, and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. These analyses
have provided more detailed trend and resource condition information that Federal,
State and local governments use in planning and decision making.
Riparian Mapping
Riparian habitats are among the most important vegetative communities for wildlife
in the western United States. For instance, in Arizona and New Mexico, 80 percent
of all vertebrates use riparian areas for at least half their life cycle; more than half
of these are totally dependent on riparian areas for their survival.
The Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 authorizes the Service to map habitats used by
fish and wildlife resources. Under that authority, the Service developed and
implemented “A System for Mapping Riparian Areas in the Western United
States” in 1997. Since its inception, the Service’s riparian mapping system has
been applied to several efforts to locate and describe this unique vegetative
community in the western United States. The Service is pursuing adoption of the
Inventory’s riparian classification system as the national standard to ensure
uniform mapping of these ecosystems.
Resource Management Applications
Increasing numbers of migratory birds, fishes, and endangered species need
sufficient quality habitat in an ever-changing landscape. Because of continuing
habitat alteration, loss and degradation, aquatic species are especially vulnerable.
Current map information coupled with other habitat data and landscape
characteristics in digital formats can provide resource managers and decision-makers
with more powerful tools for needed resource assessments.
Nearly 40 percent of the wetlands maps for the Nation are digitized. However,
digital wetland map information is not readily available for much of the Nation.
Traditional wetland maps, once converted to a digital format are of increased utility
for answering resource management questions. This is especially true when they
are used in Geographic Information Systems to aggregate and display resource
information in maps that can be more easily reproduced or combined with other
data layers.
The Inventory is strategically positioned to work with many Service resource
programs to develop more powerful computer-based resource assessments. These
include assisting Regional Geographic Information System efforts involved with
mapping Coastal Barrier resources. The Inventory can provide contemporary
resource information of value to the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program’s
wide-ranging aquatic habitat restoration efforts. Digital aquatic habitat
information can form the backbone of efforts to assist the Fisheries Management
Program in identifying barriers to fish passage throughout the Nation.
Additionally, digital resource information will be valuable to the Federal Activities
Program as an aid to developers, the public, and to other agencies for planning
future environmental activities.
The Service has also worked with numerous federal, state, and private sector
partners to help develop digital wetlands information, and will continue to be called
upon to do so in the future. As an example of their utility, the Service and the New
York City Department of Environmental Protection inventoried the City’s two
watersheds. The resulting digital wetlands maps were used by the City of New
York and combined with other GIS resource data layers to develop watershed
Freshwater forested wetlands are extensive,
making up nearly 50 percent of the total
wetland acreage in the lower 48 States. This
cypress wetland is located in southern
Maryland. Photo by Dan Smalley
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Palustrine emergent wetlands occur in all
physiographic regions of the United States.
Photo by Nova Development
Wetland restorations such as this one in New
York provide important habitat as well as flood
control and water quality benefits. USFWS photo.
management scenarios to improve water quality and safeguard this important
public water supply. The Inventory must continue to provide nationally consistent
digital aquatic habitat information that can be combined with other Geographic
Information System layers.
Strategic Positioning for the Future
The Service has determined that it is more strategically and fiscally prudent to
focus available program resources on efforts that provide the greatest payoff for
wetlands conservation and restoration than to continue wetlands mapping of
uncompleted portions of the Nation. An increasing proportion of existing maps
are becoming outdated by development and land use changes. Instead, the Service
will intensify the updating of maps in areas that have been subject to substantial
developmental change, and convert existing final wetland maps to digital formats,
to better meet the needs of Service programs and our partners.
The Inventory is the only Service program with the expertise and infrastructure
to identify and analyze the current extent and recent changes in aquatic habitats,
and to develop multifaceted approaches to protect and manage these important
habitats. The integration of wetland maps with data from other Service programs
such as Coastal Barriers, coastal habitat activities and restorations, and aquatic
habitat assessments, can broaden and improve natural resource management and
planning efforts by the Service and its partners. The Inventory’s on-line data
center provides the foundation for a comprehensive clearinghouse to serve this
information.
The Service possesses wetlands expertise that has enabled the Inventory to map
almost all of the wetlands in the conterminous United States. State and local
governments rely on this expertise and wetlands information to facilitate economic
growth and natural resource conservation. In addition, the Service produces
national and regional reports about the status and trends of our Nation’s wetlands,
helping concerned citizens understand ongoing changes in the Nation’s wetland
base. The news is positive, but there is room for improvement. The Service’s 2001
national wetlands status and trends report shows that while the rate of wetlands
loss has fallen significantly in the last 10 years, we still have not reached our national
no-net-loss goal. This scientifically sound assessment broadly illustrates where
wetlands today are most at risk, allowing policy makers to consider strategies to
conserve these valuable resources. However, national statistical sampling and
analysis each decade is not optimal for providing rigorous information that can be
used to address resource issues at regional, State, or more local scales.
Policy-Makers Require Contemporary Information
Contemporary scientific information on wetlands should be the bedrock of good
policy. The Service’s wetlands expertise positions the Agency to assume an even
greater future role in aquatic habitat policy development. How can the Service
work with other Federal agencies and Congress to meet the no-net-loss goal? What
are the greatest pressures on wetlands today? Where are wetlands being lost?
What strategies can we use to conserve these wetlands? What data sets are needed
to support habitat conservation programs now and in the future? Can we target
Federal and State partnership programs in high-risk locations? How will proposed
legislation affect wetland conservation throughout the country? These are the
questions that the Service’s wetlands expertise can help answer.
These and other questions are especially relevant today. Currently, the Clean Water
Act is an integral part of wetlands conservation. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
reviews many activities that effect wetlands, and issues permits under Section 404
of the Clean Water Act. The Service works with the Corps and other agencies to
ensure that permitted activities minimize and compensate for wetland impacts.
In this regard, the 404 permit program is crucial to achieve no-net-loss of wetlands.
Recently, however, the scope of Clean Water Act protection has diminished. Court
decisions in 1998 and 2001 scaled back the types of wetlands that can be regulated,
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Palustrine emergent and palustrine shrub
wetlands in high elevations areas like Grand
Teton National Park provide important
foraging habitat for large mammals. Photo by
NOVA Development
and the long-term consequences of the changes remain largely unknown. It is
likely that the changes could affect efforts to achieve no-net-loss of wetlands. The
potential impacts to wetland occurrence and function underscore the urgency for
providing contemporary digital wetland assessments.
Conversion to Digital Formats
A goal of the Emergency Wetlands Resources Act is for the Service to produce a
digital wetland database from the existing final wetlands maps by September 30,
2004. To accomplish that goal, the Service will need to use the latest technologies
to produce quality digital products for use in resource management applications.
Providing aquatic habitat information in digital formats enables the application of
multiple “layers” of resource information with other digital resource information
to address management issues. For instance, the Service used digital wetland
maps in the Prairie Pothole Region of the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Montana to
develop data layers to aid efforts to protect the most valuable wetlands providing
nesting habitats for several species of water birds. In Yellowstone National Park,
Wyoming, the Service’s digital wetlands data were used to develop management
plans for riparian and wetland habitats important to fish and wildlife resources.
Digital wetlands data have been used in several watersheds for functional
assessments of wetlands and their position on the landscape. The availability of
digital aquatic habitat information provides a fast, efficient, and a scientifically-sound
avenue for analyzing and resolving resource management issues.
Previously, the Service relied on the availability of cooperator funds from many
sources to produce digital wetlands products. In doing so, the Service has not
always been able to efficiently provide its field personnel with digital wetland maps
or assessment information for areas and habitats that require current information
to address resource management or development issues. The program will use
appropriations to digitize wetland maps that are Service priorities.
In coming years, contemporary digital map information will take on increasing
value for holistic management of watersheds and river systems, to facilitate
planning for energy development, and for large-scale habitat restorations. Once
identified, the Service will then work with cooperators to determine their interest
in assisting the agency with producing digital products.
The Road Ahead
The strategic mapping of wetlands and aquatic habitats, coupled with the
completion of wetland trend analyses and assessments, and data dissemination,
are key roles the Inventory can fulfill. Contemporary resource information and
quality technical assessments are the guideposts to aid decisions on policies and
strategies for effective habitat management. To meet these challenges, the Service
needs a stronger wetland habitat mapping and assessment program with a well-developed
outreach capability. The discussion that follows for each of the program
goals explains the direction and identifies opportunities to advance the Service’s
wetland mapping and assessment program in the 21st century.
Program Goal I - Strategic Mapping
Our changing world and associated land use practices require contemporary
information about the extent, location, and amount of wetlands habitat needed for
sound resource stewardship. Population growth and development pressures
continue to affect the ecological integrity of aquatic ecosystems. Today, many digital
maps need to be updated because of these continuing development and land use
changes. Much of the digital wetlands data available from the Service was
developed from aerial imagery that is now more than 20 years old. As the population
of the United States continues to grow, additional human-induced stresses will be
placed on wetlands and other important natural resources. Effective and responsive
management of these resources depends on contemporary and easily accessible
information to facilitate resource management and decision-making.
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Estuarine emergent wetlands occur primarily
along the heavily populated Atlantic and Gulf
coasts of the United States. Human-induced
pressure to fill wetlands for housing and
commercial development intensified in the
1950s and continues today. Existing Federal,
State and local wetland protection laws and
regulations have helped reduce wetland filling.
USFWS photo
The National digital wetlands habitat data maintained by the Service regularly
needs to be updated to keep pace with these changes. The Inventory needs to
provide contemporary information to address increasingly complex environmental
issues. The challenge facing the Inventory is to strategically update digital wetlands
information and make these data available to natural resource decision makers.
Resource managers and decision-makers need updated wetland map and digital
data products. The Service needs to continue to build a digital wetland map
database for the Nation, and to strategically update existing digital maps in priority
areas experiencing development and population pressures. In addition, important
development projects merit review so they can be constructed in the shortest time
practicable with minimal environmental impacts. Resource managers and decision
makers should not have to wait months, or sometimes years, to acquire and apply
updated information. To provide the Agency with the most current habitat resource
information possible, the strategic mapping approach will use innovative
technologies to produce improved products with shortened production time frames.
The Inventory will focus on the strategic updating of dated maps in
priority areas, in and adjacent to high-growth areas to better meet
the needs of resource managers.
The Inventory will develop a prioritization scheme to determine
which of the existing wetland maps are most important to update
and to digitize. Important among the considerations will be known
or suspected impacts to existing fish and wildlife resources, and
the lands that provide habitat for endangered species.
Wetland
Development Risk*
Low
Medium
High
* Risk is a measure of population increase and construction activity and wetland density.
The average age of imagery used in the
production of the original NWI maps is shown
in each of the conterminous United States.
When overlaid on the potential development
pressure on wetlands, it becomes apparent that
the NWI maps in the heavily populated coastal
regions of the Lower 48 States are in
the greatest need of updating.
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The Inventory will actively evaluate the latest technologies for improved mapping
and remote sensing, and determine their efficacy in meeting agency needs for
timely resource management information. The Inventory will capitalize on
workable innovative tools to meet strategic mapping goals efficiently and reliably.
The Service will provide this resource information, and expand and
improve the availability of digital wetlands data to accomplish this
goal. Making this information more accessible to the public will
promote the understanding of wetland resource values, lead to
reasoned choices about protecting and restoring wetlands, and help
maintain or improve the livability of our communities.
As part of this strategy, the Service will work with Congress to expand the mapping
mandate to provide updated digital habitat information for priority areas of the
Nation. Close coordination with Congress will also be important for implementing
the components of this Strategy.
Program Goal II - Trend and Change Analyses of Wetlands and Other Aquatic Habitats
The National wetland loss rate has declined substantially in the last decade.
However, because there are far fewer wetlands today than in pre-settlement times,
current information on the remaining wetlands is important. The causes of these
ongoing changes are as diverse as the many types of wetland habitats that remain.
Some areas may be subject to natural events, such as coastal storms, that alter or
change aquatic habitats. Other wetlands may experience change or loss from
human population growth.
Timely information on wetland trends is important to assess the status of these
important aquatic habitats. To continue obtaining scientifically sound information
on national loss or change rates, the Service will need to:
1) Conduct status and trend analyses at regional, State, or local scales;
2) Increase the number of sample plots to obtain statistically rigorous findings;
and
3) Decrease the reporting intervals to a maximum of every five years.
This will be a substantial effort. However, the Service believes that conducting
more frequent regional analyses is the most expedient method to increase our
knowledge regarding short and long term changes in wetland habitats. In
support of this approach, the 2001 National wetlands status and trends report
showed that freshwater forested wetlands are among the most vulnerable
wetlands in the Nation. Most of the freshwater forested wetlands are in the
southeastern United States.
Therefore, conducting regional trends analyses in the southeastern United
States to focus on the specific causes of those losses would be appropriate, and
provide recommendations on how to reduce their impact. There may also be
issue-driven needs for regional trends analyses to evaluate policy efficacy or the
impacts of legislative or administrative actions and court decisions, and land use
changes affecting aquatic habitats. These types of analyses will give decision-makers
a greater understanding of issues than will attempts to follow national
trends in an environment of lowered loss rates.
The Service will confer with Congress on enacting a statutory
mandate to complete regional and local level wetland and riparian
trends analyses.
Conducting regional and local analyses of aquatic habitat status and trends will
enable the Service to more quickly and accurately measure change and resource
conditions in key areas and watersheds.
Identification and mapping of wetlands, even
in isolated areas, can help planners and
managers make decisions when other
competing uses are envisioned. Photo by NOVA
Development.
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The Inventory will conduct regional and local trends analyses to
assess policy implications, and guide management strategies and
resource planning. These analyses will provide important
information on changes in habitats and the types of habitats
affected by environmental or biotic influences.
In addition to analyzing national wetlands trends, the Service will continue to target
watersheds in the country where impacts may be substantial. With more intensive
and frequent sampling, the Service will quantify changes and the pressures
affecting aquatic habitats. This information will be used to identify the effects of
wetland loss on fish and wildlife, and aid in the assessment of aquatic habitats.
Program Goal III – Identifying and Assessing Threats to Aquatic Habitats at Risk
For the last 50 years, many aquatic habitat policies and wetland and resource
program goals have been based on the acreage than can be protected or restored.
As science expands our knowledge of wetlands resources, and as wetland loss rates
continue to decline, it will become increasingly important to emphasize habitat
quality. The direct conversion of habitat to other societal uses can be measured or
mapped by change or decline in area. The qualitative change in structure, function,
or composition can be more challenging to document. At some point, qualitative
changes are sufficiently severe to qualify as outright habitat loss. Resource
managers need the capability to assess the efficacy of functional restoration of
degraded habitats, protecting and improving habitat quality, and implementing
comprehensive standards for fish and wildlife habitat mitigation.
Increasing population and associated development stresses require improved
information and understanding of how the Nation’s habitats respond to change.
Improved baseline and trend information that documents the abundance,
distribution, and condition of aquatic habitats is needed to implement effective
resource management actions, and to facilitate decision making at ecosystem,
regional, and watershed scales.
The Inventory needs to implement a concerted effort to analyze and assess
wetlands, riparian and other aquatic habitat data at watershed, ecosystem, and
national levels. These assessments should 1) provide scientifically based
applications for wetlands and water resource data already available from various
resource agencies (e.g., wetland status for coastal barrier components), and 2)
expand the capability of the Inventory to integrate digital map data with other
resource information to produce timely and relevant management and decision
support tools.
To complement existing resource mapping and digitizing efforts, the Service should
intensify technical efforts to assimilate and analyze geo-based data sets. This
synthesized assessment information will help the Agency and our partners answer
priority aquatic habitat related questions. Other activities might incorporate
elements of hydrogeomorphic assessments, habitat availability and wetland
functional assessments, or long-term characterization studies of changes to
vulnerable ecosystems of concern.
The Service maintains an extensive geospatial database of aquatic habitat change
information. This data, coupled with the extensive and diverse technical capabilities
of its aquatic habitat personnel, has positioned the Service to conduct functional
resource assessments, and influence functional habitat policies in the future. Other
Federal agencies, the states, tribes, and local units of government need this
information to facilitate their planning and resource conservation efforts.
Aquatic habitat conservation efforts in the future will be most effective with the
involvement and support of stakeholders in State and local governments. Providing
current information and focused resource assessments in a format that most users
can access and assimilate will be one of the most important contributions the Service
can make for fish and wildlife conservation in the 21st century.
Wetlands throughout the United States provide
recreational and aesthetic benefits including
bird watching and the enjoyment of open space.
Photo by NOVA Development
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The Service will intensify program efforts to expand and improve the electronic
availability of resource information, and more rapidly distribute wetland and
aquatic habitat information. This will be accomplished through developing
and enhancing public and private partnerships to promote fish and wildlife
habitat protection, restoration, and creation activities.
The Service will draw on remotely-sensed information, enhanced geographic
information system capabilities, and the development of new partnerships to
ensure a quick turnaround of information analyses. The products will be of
substantial benefit to the Service and our partners as tools for directing
resource restoration efforts, assessing and quantifying water resource
development effects, and in assisting land use planning activities.
When used with other layers of digital resource information, wetlands data provides a powerful tool for resource managers to assess the
potential effects of development projects on remaining wetlands.
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Freshwater fringe wetlands provide habitat for
aquatic and terrestrial wildlife and help filter out
nutrients and sediments. Photos by NOVA
Development
Legislation that affects wetlands is occasionally introduced in Congress. In these
cases, the Service’s wetlands expertise can provide critical analyses, helping to
predict the outcomes of the proposed policy. The capability to provide thorough
and rapid technical evaluations and analyses will help law makers at the Federal,
State, and local level understand how proposed policies will affect wetlands in their
areas of concern.
For example, when the Clean Water Act is reauthorized, the Service will be better
able to provide law makers with information that will help fully characterize the
effects of proposed amendments. The 2001 national wetland status and trend
analysis showed the need to develop a suite of next generation protection,
acquisition, and restoration policy options to curtail future wetland losses. The
Service will use this and other information sources to work with our partners to
guide policy decisions. The Inventory is poised to provide aquatic habitat
assessment information to promote sound decisions for habitat management.
As a major source of aquatic habitat information for the Administration and the
public, the Service will strive to improve the availability of this resource information
in digital formats, and showcase successful applications of this storehouse of aquatic
habitat information. This is necessary to give the public an avenue for better
understanding aquatic habitats, and how human development can be compatible
with these important ecosystems.
Summary
As a mission critical component of the Service, the National Wetlands Inventory
has refined its program focus and direction to supply Agency resource managers
and its partners with digital map information, technically advanced tools,
assessment products, and information dissemination procedures that will provide
solutions to myriad resource management issues. This Strategy provides the
needed framework to accomplish this challenge. The Service will begin to
implement this change in program direction in FY 2002.
The National Wetlands Inventory will continue to rely on sound scientific principles
to provide Service resource managers with quality products. The principal avenue
to be followed in accomplishing this is a conversion to a digital environment and
providing timely analyses to Service programs. Once the digital products are
available, we will communicate our findings through an aggressive dissemination
and outreach program using a variety of formats to make the information available.
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The NWI Strategy will focus on these three program goals:
I. Strategic digital updating of maps in areas of the Nation experiencing
substantial developmental pressure and providing these products to the public
over the Internet.
II. Analyzing changes and trends to wetlands and other aquatic habitats at
ecosystem, regional, or local scales.
III. Analyzing and disseminating resource information to better identify threats
and risks to important wetland and aquatic habitats to promote sound decision
making.
To refocus the Inventory will require the Service to accomplish the following
strategic actions:
I. Intensify the strategic completion and updating of outdated maps in priority
areas of the Nation, and provide natural resources information when and
where it is needed by expanding and improving the availability of digital
wetlands data.
II. Develop a prioritization scheme to determine which of the existing maps
are most important for digitizing.
III. Consult with the Congress on the redirection of the Inventory and needed
amendments to the Emergency Wetlands Resources Act.
IV. Conduct regional and local aquatic habitat trends analyses to guide Service
management strategies, and sound habitat resource planning and decision
making by others.
VI. Use the latest scientific and technical tools to analyze information that will
enhance the use of Geographic Information System capabilities in resource
management.
VII. Enhance partnerships and develop new ones to promote fish and wildlife
habitat protection, restoration, and creation activities.
Mudflats and wetlands associated with tidal
creeks in the eastern United States provide
essential habitat for shore birds and other
wildlife. Muddy Creek, Maryland. Photo by
Gabriela Smalley
12
Emergent wetlands in the Cascade Mountains are a vital link in the twice-annual migration of millions of wetland
dependent birds in the Pacific Northwest. Photo by NOVA Development
U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
http://www.fws.gov
January, 2002